Rendezvous column: Tragic accidents at paper mill

In the early years, all of the area paper mills had tragic accidents, and many of them I have written about. Today I bring you three more.

In January 1900 a fatal accident occurred at the Nekoosa paper mill when one of the employees there lost his life.

Thomas Torsney, who had been employed at the mill in Nekoosa less than two weeks, had his skull crushed between two paper rollers and died instantly.

The Centralia Enterprise and Tribune reported that Thomas was in the act of straightening some paper which was being fed into a machine and in some manner his head was drawn between the rollers.

Before coming to Nekoosa he had been employed at the Biron mill and was very popular among his coworkers there.

Young Thomas, who was single, came here from Schenectady, New York, like many of the immigrants to this area, and his remains were returned there for burial.

The Grand Rapids Tribune reported two years later that another mill employee was killed on the same machine in the same manner. As third-hand on the No. 3 machine, Fred Westover was killed instantly when, while handing the paper to the back-tender, he leaned over a little too far and was caught between the rolls of paper, crushing his skull. Fred, 22, was the son of Matt and Josephine Westover of Grand Rapids.

The tragedies at the mill were not always limited to mill employees either.

On the afternoon of Oct. 17, 1904, after coming home from school, Robbie Hooper, son of William Hooper of Nekoosa, asked his mother if he might go play with friends in the southern part of town. He promised he would come home early if she let him go and so she did.

True to his promise, less than half an hour later Robbie was home, but had been carried there by his friends, dead.

The Grand Rapids Wisconsin Valley Leader stated that Robbie and some other boys had been playing with push cars that were standing on a side track and belonging to the mill. They were pushing the cars backwards and forwards when in the midst of the play, Robbie slipped and fell under one of the cars. The wheels passed over his chest and stomach, crushing him in a terrible manner and killing him almost instantly.

His funeral took place at the Congregational Church in Nekoosa two days later, attended by a large number of friends of the family.

Rhonda Whetstone is a columnist for Daily Tribune Media, News-Herald Media and Stevens Point Journal Media. Rhonda’s Twitter ID is TribRendezvous, if you wish to follow her musings there. You also can get previews to upcoming columns by clicking “like” Rhonda’s View Rendezvous on Facebook. If you have story ideas of a historical nature, email her at Rhonda.Whetstone@gmail.com.